Adam Bensman (YouTube, Feb 10, 2025) warns roofing sales professionals about homeowners who accept insurance payments but refuse to proceed with repairs. He uses a personal anecdote about a homeowner who kept funds and later lost the house. He recommends using and properly deploying contingency agreements to set expectations, educating homeowners about depreciation/deductible proof (mentions Texas HB 2102), communicating directly to recover trust, and, if necessary, walking away and learning from the experience. The video closes with links to further playlists, a free training center, and his book.
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The homeowner wants to keep the money. Even though you did all the work. You met with the adjuster, you got him a fat check, you thought you had everything communicated clearly, but they just want to keep the money. Someone told them or they thought that they could profit from this. Just like this gentleman I work with. You know what happened to me? So Drew, by the way, it wasn't me. It was a member of our team. He got this massive home approved and we're talking O and P, the whole works. But it was a newer property and the insurance company released almost all the funds. The ACV check was massive. It was like 90% of the claim. And the homeowner ghosted us. He wanted to keep the money. He wanted to profit from this. We showed up at his house, he didn't answer. We ended up doing an install nearby. And we find as he pops his garage one day that a brand new Tesla rolls out. By the way, this was right when Tesla was released. We end up just a couple days later getting a cancellation notice that comes in. And this was at the same time as one of the newest iPads got released. And by default, the email signature on the iPads would say, for my brand new iPad. And we got the cancellation from that. Like, oh, glad that Drew could help you pay for your brand new iPad. And it wasn't long after that, and this is true story, there was a foreclosure sign in front of the house. The guy lost his house. So yeah, he tried to profit from it, but he blew all the money. Now in today's depressed economy because we're beyond the zero percent interest days, roofing prices are going up. I've heard from a few roofers that even getting paid from homeowners, they were having more problems now than they have in the past. Like if something used to happen once or twice in a year, could happen six times. Eight. Eight times per quarter. And again, this all depends on volume. So this is a real issue. It could be happening to you. It could happen more. So in this video, I want to help you get to the root of it so you can improve your communication and know what to do when it comes up. So maybe it doesn't come up again. That's the big idea, isn't it? So, Adam Bensman here, thanks for joining me. And I hope you like this. The shirt, the OG shirt, the OG roof shredder shirt. So I'm excited to jump into today's video. Let's rock and roll. Roofing sales is personal development in disguise. And the Reward for growth is life changing. I hope my content helps you create a richer life and bank account. Okay, first things first, is a contingency agreement. If you've had this happen, I want to ask you, did you use a contingency agreement? Yes or no? Now, I know that you may be against it and many people are. I've done a lot of videos on it. Like, in fact, I did one called Pros and Cons about contingency agreements. I recommend you watch that one. I'm very for the contingency agreement because I believe it sets proper expectations out of the gate. And even if it's no more than a glorified handshake. More on that in a little bit. It does provide a framework for the salesperson to communicate how the process works and again, to set expectations and the right dynamic of the relationship. Now the next question, if you did use a contingency agreement is this, did you use it the right way? Now what do I mean by the right way is there's a lot of new salespeople that when I, when they're, when they've been trained, like, that's exactly what I said. And then we do role play and here's what happens. What they think and what they say doesn't line up. So then what the homeowner hears is not the right message. I have an entire playlist dedicated to using the contingency agreement as a sales tool. I recommend you jump in. I'll cover the three points and how to use that. So that'd be my next question. Now, the next thing that you want to do is to educate the, the homeowner on a few things. Let's talk about the few things. Number one, and this ideally should happen before you get the agreement signed or. Excuse me, before you get the contingency agreement signed and, or before you start the process. For some reason, you're like super anti contingency agreement. And that is setting expectations and educating the homeowner on how the depreciation works. So in today's world, for example, HB 2102, that's Texas's law stating that you got to pay your deductible even though it may not be enforced. Gosh, I really hope we get some case law at some point so we can change the game here. But there are insurance carriers that are only releasing depreciation once they receive proof of deductible payment. Now, that doesn't only mean a picture of a check. It means a picture of a check in the deposit statement showing that the check was cash. That way they can stop people from writing a check and then ripping it up. So, hypothetically, this homeowner, he or she thinks they're going to profit from this. They go to file for depreciation. Insurance carriers, like, well, they're not releasing any funds until you show us that you got the work done and you provide proof of deductible payment. If they can't produce that, then they're really shortchanging themselves. So again, this should be verified up front. Now, I would also recommend that you do your very best to enforce the contingency agreement. And yes, I know, I know. I get. I get what you're thinking. Are they actually enforceable? And the answer is, no, they're really not. And some people may disagree with me. And that's cool. You can. In fact, I invite disagreement. Just this morning in our leadership roundtable in rsra, I had very strong views about roof rejuvenation, and they changed. I had a very. A member who's doing some great stuff, and I'm like, I could totally see how that fits into the model. And you're doing awesome work. He's actually running a session for us. So my point. Sharing this is, this is my opinion subject to change. I think it's good to be open to having your opinion change. Otherwise, you're just dogmatic and delusional. Here's the deal. From all the time I spent with attorneys, I've found that a contract is the contract when money changes hands. Money hasn't changed hands, don't have a contract. So technically, I don't see it as enforceable. Some other people have said on their videos, yes, it is, and here's why. But I think we can all agree on this. Your contract is as enforceable as the fat check you want to write to your attorney to enforce it. And it could take hours. And attorneys are not cheap. So if you're going to get a $2,000 cancellation fee and your attorney fees are 1500 bucks or 2,500 bucks, like you're throwing good money after bad. But in this thread, because this video was inspired by a recent conversation that is going on inside our survey, one of our members, sadly, is dealing with this. Daeshawn Bryant chimed in, and I love what he shared. Basically approaching the homeowner and saying, hey, you know, I we had an agreement. I gave you my word. I did everything that I said I do. And then you've gone back in your word. Tell me, what did I do to lose your trust? And I'M paraphrasing that Daeshaun, if you see this video comment below, correct. Anything I said, that wasn't right. By the way, I give 100% credit to this to Daeshaun Bryant. I love working alongside Daeshaun. He is, he's a stud and he puts a smile on his face every time we get to talk and hang out. I know for many of our members as well, so. But approaching that head on is what you got to do in all of our opinions. Now, assuming you go nowhere, what do you do? This is where both Deshaun and I agreed and that is walk away. This is the type of customer that if they're this much of a headache upfront, they're just not a good fit. You have to cut your losses and use this as an opportunity to improve. Ask yourself what went wrong? What was within your control that you messed up? Did you not communicate it right? Did you not use a contingency agreement? Did you not use it properly? Do you not set expectations? Did you not educate the homeowner? Okay. And then if any of those was right, you're like, okay, I'm going to fix that. Move on. Because sometimes our, our best lessons in life are from our failures. Which is why literally this morning in our leadership roundtable, we were doing a year end year in review and 2025 planning and I opened it by saying, let's share our most expensive mistake. This was recommended by one of our members and it was a great idea and we shared the biggest screw ups we had because that's our often our biggest lessons hiding inside. And sometimes having homeowners that want to keep the money is our fault. Other times it's not. So let's learn from it and move on now. Thank you for joining me in this video. If you want more, I want you to jump into this next playlist, okay. Where I'll teach you how to use the contingency agreement as a sales tool and answer some of the most common questions about contingency agreements that come up. And if you want to take it one step further, jump into my free training center. There's a link in the Description. Go to adamsfreestuff.com I got a free copy of my book in there now. The Roofing Sales Survival Guide, how to Beat the Odds, Overcome Yourself and Win Big became a number one bestseller on Amazon and is required reading by roofing teams across America. Thank you for joining me and I'll be seeing you in the next one.
